338 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nor. i, 1893. 
not indicate a fair overage, while the Indian 
Companies ere about a fair average of ail the 
Indi*n Tea Companie?. What about the Caetle- 
reagh Co., Hapu ale Co,, Oriental Bank Eestates 
Co., Madulsima, Oo., Lanka Co., Spring Valley 
Co,, Asialio Prduoe Uo. and others which might 
be quoted as well as those Companiea we hear 
rumours about planting with large capital, £50 to 
£60 an acre ? What about thtm I ask ?— Youts 
faithfully, IE A PLANTER. 
INDIAN AND CEYLON TEA COMPANIES: 
CRITICISM THEREON. 
Colombo, Oct. 23, 1893. 
DkabSib, — Mr. George Seton's "Comparative table 
ot Indian Tea Oompaniea " is interesting to all in 
the tea swim. 
The first thing that strikes one is if in 1892 
the Companies, whose working is analysed, paid a 
dividend of per cent , made a prolit of 2id per lb. 
on the made tea ; how much are they likely to pay 
in 1893 when Indian teas have ureiaiicd ahvut 
2^(1 i>er lb. less than the// did in lb92 ? 
The eeoond thing that etrikes one— that is the 
Companies witli large yield, imid better than the 
Companies whose yield was smaller and prices higher. 
Thus three Companies wlioae ji-'ld was 62H— 527 
and 710 lb. per acre . respectively, althougli they 
only realized 8 Sid— 8'lld and 8'30d, or au average 
of 620 lb, at S dOi, per lb. made an averf go profit of 
£8 8s 3d an acre, againet an avorago ol £4 133 1 1 
for all the Companies reviawctl. Thia iudioatea 
either that 1892 was a year of cxini, profit Jor 
estates producing low priced IVA ; o:, that a larger 
yield pays injinitely better than a low yield and 
lanoy prices and that (520 lb. au acre at 8 401 is 
much more profitable than 140 lb. at 111 a lb,; and I 
take the latter as being the correct deduction. Then 
take capital accounts, there are 15 Compauies; whose 
capital is £50 and upwards per acre and they paid a 
dividend of 5 per cent on an average against an 
average of 7;V per cent for all the Compauie?, so high 
capital is a great disadvantage. 
The Indian Companies which yielded under 325 
lb. an acre cosBtiug 9 04d to place in London 
market and selling at fully lid had an average 
of £45 per acre capital, sud on it yielded 5 
per cent, and if we compare this with the proposed 
Gallaha Company, which is eatimated lo yield 
10 p;r cent, I oonfeea I am a little confujed. 
Perhaps—*/ it is still intended to Jloal it as a 
public Company— Ua valuator Mr. Oibboa will give 
the public tha benefit of h's researcliea, and for 
oompariBon they might be put in tabular form 
thus :— 
S .a 
I* 3 (5 6 « 
Inlian Compames wlioee 
vield is 32.5 lb an acre O- 
and indei average ,. £45 300 av. 9-04 11 5»/- 
Gullaba Company esti- 
mated (Total oBpitBl p in°/ 9 
£130,000).., .. ? ? ? ? 10 /c? 
If the actual yield for Gallahx for 12 months 
from July 1892 price per lb. it realized is added 
is would be better. The selling price of the Indian 
teas lid per lb. is to very much above what 
any Ceylona of medium elevation are likely to 
fetch that it seems difflouU to see where a 10 
per ceot aividend is likely be got, a,3 the yielag 
are afproximately the same so far as I under- 
stand but (if the Company is (0 be floated publicly) 
Mr. Gibbon will no doubt afford the information 
for the benefit of intending; shareholders, and make 
the matter c^uito plain. Please observe that the 
profit of tbes3 estates was £2 ICs an acre only 
although their teas fetched lid per )b ! 
Altogether the outlook o! the tea enterprise is 
not of the brightest and for estates giving about 
300 lb. au aero eEpccially (as will be seen when 
we compare the first group of estates with the 
last group) the outlook is p.loomy : — 
Yield Selling at Profit per acre 
1st group C2<Jlb. 8- 10 £8 Hn 3d 
2nd group 300 about 11 £2 lOj 
Which goes to prove that high prices are of yery 
little avail unless they have a large yield with 
them and that with a large yield a moderate price 
leaves a fine margin for profit. The reason of ili^s 
is that whether we get a yield of 200 lb. per acre 
or 800 lb. all etouding charges have to be paid, 
Euoh as weeding, pruning, upkeep of buildiop, 
superintendence, Agenoy, &c. The etrength of 
Ceylon today lies in the fact that a far larger pro- 
portion of the capital iuvested in the enterprise 
belongs to the proprietors than in the days of 
coffee when many a man borrowed half to two- 
thirds of the value of his estate on mortgage bonds 
with the result that when loffee began to fail the 
men had nothingto fall back on but with tea it is dif- 
ferent. The banks have constantly refused toadvance 
on block loans, with the result that eltbough our 
ftorpBga is smaller than it would otherwise have been, 
the amount borrowed on it is much lei:B per acre 
and so we will be better able to stand the coming 
crisis in our tea enterprise. 
So far as 1*93 is concerned prices for the 
first G months have been at a level that would 
have ruined many, had they remained at it much 
longer ; and fortunately for us owing to ehort 
yie;d (we are not likely to get over 78, .500, 000 lb. at 
the outside) prices are likely to keep up till 
December anyhow. TEA PLANTER. 
Hope for the West Indies, — In concludinf^ 
a very readable little new book Mr. H. J. Bell — 
eays the James's Budget — combats the idea that 
the West Indies are " played out." Writing of 
Grenada, Mr. Froude declares that the settlers, had 
once bcrn a thriv.ng and wealthy community, but 
have melted away. Those that are left he Bays, ara 
clearing out, having sold their estates for anything 
they could get. But Mr, Bell points out that : — 
fio far from this being the case, the truth is that 
ten to twenty years ago, the sugar-cane having 
become au unprofitable cultivation, a good many 
proprietors of .sugar estate.? sold them for less than 
their value aud left the colony. To every one of 
these individuals, ten, instead of giving up in despair, 
stirred up their energies and set to replacing the 
worn-out sugar industry by raising cocoa plantations 
on their rich cane lands. Last year Grenada ex- 
ported over 80,000 cwt. of cocoa, worth about £300,000. 
As cocoa at present pays about 20 per cent, on the 
oiitlaj", every one who can is planting up every acre 
he can get of suitable land, and so far from the 
white planters selling their estates for whatever they 
can get for them, it is the rarest thing for a cocoa 
estate to be sold willingly, and for every such estate 
there would be twenty buyers. A great many Eng- 
lishmen have, iu the last two or three years, come 
to Grenada with the intention of investing in cocoa 
plantations, bnt so far from obtaining estates for a 
song, were nearly all obliged to return home, not 
finding a single cocoa estate for sale. Cocoa lands 
sold by the Provost Marshal realize sums which would 
have bought five times as many acres in days gone 
by, and only the other day £210 wer? paid for tWQ 
giCies of land iu c9C9a, 
